


Valediction Forbidding Mourning

by fresne



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Character of Color, Dark Agenda Challenge, F/M, Yuletide, Yuletide 2009
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 03:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fresne/pseuds/fresne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two souls therefore, which are one, Though one must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion,<br/>Like gold to aery thinness beat.<br/>If they be two, they are two so, As stiff twin compasses are two ;<br/>One soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if th' other do.<br/>And though it in the centre sit,  Yet, when the other far doth roam,<br/>It leans, and hearkens after it,  And grows erect, as that comes home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Valediction Forbidding Mourning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sithwitch13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sithwitch13/gifts).



> [Listen to it ](http://lifeamgood.com/podcasts/pod_ValedictionForbiddingMourning.mp3)
> 
>  
> 
> The following inspiration for this work and inspiration for my dialogue, where I am not directly quoting, because apt quotes are cool:  
> John Donne, Valediction Forbidding Mourning

_Such wilt thou be to me, who must,  
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ; _

The line runs free. He moves the brush in a wide arc on the paper. It is red. The color makes him think of her. He looks up and she is there. She's always there.

Still. Quiet. The center turns. She stretches her arms out. She balances herself on one foot. The other foot points at the wall. It turns as she moves. As she moves, she thinks of the still place. It makes her think of him. She turns and he is there. He is always there.

 

**Art**  
He stood in the gallery, not really expecting much of anything. When a rich man arranges for a showing for his "pet" artist and invites executives from a Pharmaceutical company, well. There are words for that. Unpleasant words, which he parsed from his mind. He said them in Italian instead. In the language of his home that they might sound more sweet.

Then he looked up. He looked up and in that moment, he understood Plato's assertion that we each are but half of a soul split in two parts. Severed from the other half of our selves. Ever seeking that longed for missing part that we might once more be whole.

He could not say why felt compelled to speak praises for Nolan, like a soul seeking damnation when absolution was close at hand. When all he wanted was to ask this Beatrice, this Nine, this dove, this stranger, if he could watch her as she caught flight.

 

_Science_  
Andrea von Heilderweiden was a scientist. She had three degrees on her wall at home. She could play prime/not-prime with the best of them. She knew the calculation of Pi to it's 63rd degree. She said it to herself to calm herself. This was an extremely important project for Rossum Corporation and she wanted to do her best. She told herself that she believed in the future and that she believed in science. Then she turned from her clipboard where she had recorded the latest results and she saw him.

She calmed herself. Made herself shake his hand crisply. Coolly. She was a scientist and this was merely pheromones. A biological reaction.

But she was a scientist and it was important within science to acknowledge the truth, however awkward. She looked him in the eye and said, "I think there may be a strong degree of similar electonegativities between us, which will result in a powerful covalence."

He smiled at her awkwardly. Delighted. Surprised. He said, "I was about to say the same thing." They locked their covalent bonding lips until it was time for a treatment.

 

Politics  
The politicians in Our City of Angels were dirty. Dirty as the air that they breathed that stunted the growth of every living thing that they touched. There wasn't a single one of them that could be trusted.

"That... is a really interesting point of view." The councilman's little girl friend, who they had him following around at this little meet and greet had wide innocent eyes, but no one stayed innocent for very long in this City. In this town. In this hard cold bitch goddess of a world.

"I don't know." She quirked a smile at him and it was like watching a crane take flight over a cement flood control channel in the morning. "I like to think I'm the bitch goddess." Then she shook an old man's hand and won another heart and he wasn't talking about a deep fundraiser pockets.

**War**  
Smooth and easy as sunrise over the Sierra Nevada on a Christmas morning, which is to say the sonofabitch tried to take her head off with a shotgun. She brought him to Jesus soon enough.

Across the way, her partner set off the charges. One. Two. Three. Pop. Pop. Pop. She didn't turn to look at him. Not like she could see him through four tons of concrete. She knew where he was. She'd pinned the tracker on him herself. She waited. The explosions flushed her targets out like ducks in a row. She took them down sweet. Easiest money she'd ever made. She poked a corpse with her toe. "That's a message from Mr. Morningside. He doesn't like to be crossed."

"I don't think they can hear you." Her partner loped around the corner. His gear over his shoulder. She shrugged and took point. They slid back out they way they'd came and back right into the mall below. No one the wiser. As they passed a Victoria's Secret, she said, "I'm still feeling kinda keyed up. Wanna help me take the edge off." She didn't look at him to see his answer. He was the whetstone to her blade and he did love to sharpen.

 

~~Peace~~  
The waves washed over the rocks and he breathed in peace. The instructor said, "Arch your back." He arched his back in the Sunrise Salutation. He glanced at his partner, his lover, his friend. It was his idea that they come to this retreat. She'd resisted, but he could see that she was enjoying herself now. She worked so hard. He'd do anything to help her relax. Tonight he planned on proposing. He had the ring. It was his grandmother's ring. It was nothing much, but he'd put it on her finger with love.

The instructor said, "Now into Downward Facing Dog." He breathed out peace and let the sound of the waves wash over him. He could feel the negative energy of the seashore pulling all the stress from his body. But still, he wobbled in his Downward Facing Dog.

The instructor reached out to steady him. He looked her in the eye and for a moment, even though everything was so right in his life, he wondered why he was here. He almost reached out to her, but he did not. He didn't even know who this woman is.

_Thy firmness makes my circle just,  
And makes me end where I begun._

As he wakes in the morning, hers is the first face that he looks up to see. She is there. She is always there.

As she gets ready to sleep, his is the last face that she turns to before the glass separates them from each other's view.

**Author's Note:**

> If after reading my fiction here, you would like to read more about me and my writing check out my profile.


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